Reading Levels of Rural and Urban Third-Graders Lag Behind Suburban Peers

This brief examines reading levels among third graders, finding that rural and urban third graders on average have lower achievement levels than suburban peers. The brief shows that socioeconomic status  plays a large role in reading achievement; for struggling readers, so does location—rural students who were struggling readers at the beginning of kindergarten have fallen behind their urban and suburban counterparts by third grade, even when children of the same socioeconomic status are compared.

The differences in third grade reading achievement between rural and non-rural children who were low achievers in kindergarten not only reflect a child’s socioeconomic background, but also different educational opportunities and school resources available to these children. The brief finds, for example, that only 27 percent of teachers in rural schools report active professional development programs in their schools, compared with 40 percent of teachers in non-rural schools. For the full report, click the link below.